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Wealthy gay porn producer Michael Lucas has successfully pressured New York City’s LGBT Center to renege on its agreement to host a “Party to End Apartheid” on Israeli Apartheid Week. Lucas threatened to boycott the center and pressure its donors to pull their money out. He called the event an “anti-Semitic” affair held by a “hate group.” It seems that money talks, because I doubt that a progressive institution like the LGBT Center would have otherwise responded to an open bigot like Lucas who has used ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages as sets for sex scenes.

Lucas, who leads gay tours to Israel to promote the country’s supposedly tolerant gay culture, has celebrated fellow porn producer Charles Merrill’s public burning of a Qu’ran, calling it an act of “artistic bravery.” Last year, he joined the Islamophobic bandwagon in calling the Cordoba Initiative’s plan to build an Islamic community center near Ground Zero part of a covert plot to install Shariah law in the United States — he described the proposed center as a “monument to Muslim terrorism.” A laundry list of racist statements by Lucas would be so long it is impossible to compile (“I hate Muslims, absolutely,” he once said); it is enough to note that his political views are defined by crude resentment of Muslims, the fetishization of an Israel that does not exist, and little else.

What is more remarkable about Lucas is the way in which he has fused extreme Zionism with homoeroticism in his films. His most widely promoted film, “Men of Israel,” contains a sex scene inside a Palestinian village that was ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias in 1947-48. Lucas describes the scene here (do not click the link if you do not want photos of nude men to suddenly appear on your screen), deceptively stating that the village was “deserted centuries ago:”

…we went to an abandoned village just north of Jerusalem. It was a beautiful ancient township that had been deserted centuries ago…however, that did not stop our guys from mounting each other and trying to repopulate it. Biology may not be the lesson of the day but these men shot their seeds all over the village.

But again to get to the point of pleasure we had no easy task to tackle. We had to break down carefully replace the metal barrier guarding us from entering the village and hike up the treacherous mountain that was lined with barbed wire and dense torn bushes.

Never to miss a beat, the Israeli media was there to document and run a broadcast profile on our filming. Channel 1 Israel, the oldest and longest running public television station in the country, interviewed the cast and embraced our excursion Inside Israel!

Lucas does not name the village where the scene was shot, but my guess is it was Lifta, which was attacked by Zionist militias in December 1947 (five months before any Arab armies entered Palestine), bombed, and ethnically cleansed. Today, the ruins of the village are well preserved — so well that the Jerusalem municipality plans to transform it into a Jews-only luxury development.

It is not hard to imagine what would happen to an Arab porn director if he went to a site of Jewish genocide like a destroyed shtetl from the Pale of Settlement or a concentration camp, and filmed actors as they “shot their seeds” on it. Yet Lucas profits from desecration porn, and maintains enough cachet to bully a major gay institution in New York City.

That Lucas described Lifta inaccurately (not as having been affected by the Nakba) demonstrates that he specifically didn’t intend his porno to invoke the Nakba – hence, Max contradicts himself. Nor is his “Jewish genocide” comparison apt, since no genocide occurred in Lifta. Also, its funny that he chooses to mention a Shtetl and not, for instance, a looted Iraqi Jewish synagogue or a looted Egyptian Jewish business.

Regardless, I doubt that Jews would even notice if a porno was shot where a shtetl used to be – there were a lot that no longer exist, and are now part of Eastern European gentile cities. Its weird how Jews have moved on and Max is religiously fixed on the sanctity of Lifta.

Nor does Max shy away from more of the typical defamatory “Jews-only” nonsense. Still waiting to see the “Jews-only” roads in the West Bank…

Also, the subtext of the post is homophobic – the graphic description of homosexual sex is intended to incite Max’s fans.

RE: “Wealthy gay porn producer Michael Lucas has successfully pressured New York City’s LGBT Center to renege on its agreement to host a ‘Party to End Apartheid’ on Israeli Apartheid Week.” – Max Blumenthal

RE: “Wealthy gay porn producer Michael Lucas has successfully pressured New York City’s LGBT Center to renege on its agreement to host a ‘Party to End Apartheid’ on Israeli Apartheid Week.” – Blumenthal

@AmericanNYC: Are you one of the hasbarist operatives paid by the Israeli Ministry of Defense? Are you authorized to disclose that fact, if you are?

I think Max’s condemnation of this pornographer’s desecration of a site of ethnic cleansing is perceptive, eloquent, and moving. There seems to be no depth to which the tribal settler colonialists will not sink.

1. Your ignorance does not give you the linguistic license, or the legal license, to redefine the meaning of the term Ethnic Cleansing. As such, I suggest you educate yourself on the legal meaning of the term — see the Serbia/Bosnia ethnic cleansing of the 1990s, for example.

2. About 800,000 Palestinians were driven at gun point out of their homes between 1947 – 1949. Again, ignorance does not excuse your irrelevant accusations toward Max Blumenthal or against others who write on such topics.

3. Those Jewish-only roads are open to Jews only, hence the name. Even Israel’s Palestinian minority — Israeli citizens — is prohibited from traveling on such roads. Should they dare to, they will be turned back at a checkpoint. The roads are there, but you live in blissful ignorance. I don’t suppose you can see Bermuda from your house, do you?

Max. You’ve lost me on this one. What exactly does the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have to do with the LGBT community? Don’t we have enough real enemies here in America who genuinely hate us for being gay? Are we now supposed to share your enmity towards the state of Israel because of the actions of a producer of gay porn? This is a pretty thin reed, even for you Max. I do appreciate your efforts in exposing the hate-filled Right-wing organizations like the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. For that I will always be grateful to you, Max. But I just can’t go along with you when you attack our friends in Israel.

@ Jim from Iowa. Could you be more self-centered? Fortunately there are people who oppose each form of injustice, not just the ones which could only affect you. Your friends in Israel are killing, oppressing, stealing from defenseless innocent people. The military equipment used to oppress, kill, steal come from the US, our money used to harm, while more people in the US fall into deadly hunger and homeless. It is Lucas who comes into the US with hate and violence for the Palestinian people. Get it? Your friend Lucas is harming my friends in NY, to help your friends in Israel continue harming my friends in Palestine.
Grace from New York

Really good article.
@jim, Palestinians are oppressed, targeted, killed, and treated inhumanely in their own homeland, just as the LGBT community is here. By ignoring this, and siding with the oppressors, you are stooping to the level of those who would fight against gay marriage rights in the US. Open your eyes and side with the oppressed around the world.

To all in the LGBT community who want to allign yourself with Max’s position on Israel you should do the following. Get out your coin purse. Grab your spare change. And buy a ticket on the Clue Bus. ‘Cause some of you don’t have a clue about how gay people are treated in the Middle East. As a gay man, your life would be exponentially better in Israel than any of the Arab countries, where government-sanctioned anti-gay hatred is widespread. Think about that the next time you want to attack Israel, the only democratic state; the only country tolerant of the LGBT community; and the only true friend of America in that part of the world.

To clueless Jim from Iowa on his Clueless Bus, it’s nice to know there are some pinhead gays out there who buy Israeli propaganda.

Yes it is true that openly queer people are treated better inside the tiny cosmopolitan city of Tel Aviv than in most other cities in the Arab world with the exception of Beirut (otherwise there are big and thriving underground LGBT communities in all of these countries) but try stepping outside of tiny Tel Aviv flamboyantly dressed (or try holding hands and kissing your partner in the streets of Jerusalem) and see how the orthodox and ultra-orthodox living there will greet you. Every couple of years the deeply entrenched hatred of the orthodox for the LGBT community spills over into the tiny enclave of Tel Aviv and members get shot at or stabbed. So being gay in Israel is not as great as the Israeli tourism industry wants you to think it is.

As for Israel being the only democracy in the region: A) that is not true, Turkey, Lebanon and Iran (it’s politics aside) are democracies whether you like them or not. and B) Haven’t you been following the news?! Arabs are rising up against their US, EU and Israeli backed dictators so that they can have democracy in their countries as well. Israel is a democracy only for its Jewish majority not for its Muslim or Christian minorities or its foreign workers.

You really need to stop being so obnoxiously self-centered. The difficulties and double standards you face for being gay others face in Israel for being of a different race or religion and as someone who experiences injustices you should be sensitive and aware of injustices done to others.

@ JIm from I own america
Could you get more clueless? If the group chose to meet in a NYC LGBT center they are not haters of LGBTs. They were welcomed for years until self centered foreigner Lucas wanted cover with Zionists for his money making schemes. How is denying americans the right to assemble in the US helping the LBGT community in our world? No concern for the LGBT community oppressed in countries supported by US and Israel? Israel and US are fine with the oppression of LGBTs if their interests are met. They have supported the brutal regimes you complain of, they keep democracy from occurring for their own greed. Keeping non jews in the back of the Israeli apartheid bus is morally culpable, making you cooperator of conscious crime.

To the wise and wonderful, all-knowing and completely perceptive Rose, all I can say is this in reply:

Some people sit on their butts
Got the dream, but not the guts
That’s living for some people,
For some hum-drum people, I suppose.
Well, they can stay and rot
But not Rose!

All I’m really trying to say, really, are two basic things: 1) The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict as an LGBT issue is problematic and 2) Israelis should not be judged and condemned outside of the context of all the players in Middle East politics– consider everyone’s actions (i.e. Hamas, Palestinian Authority, Hezbollah, Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, etc.) which historically, more often than not, have sought Israel’s destruction.

Oh Jimmy from Iowa! Your world view and politics are as screwed up as your “ironic” (I suppose that is the effect you wanted to create) choice of songs to insult me. Actually the Liza Minnelli song is flattering to “Rose” the character in the song, at least she is willing to take risks and explore the world, so I’ll take it: http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/35789953-some-people

We got rid of one guy who quoted comic books only to have another guy who quotes old gay icons (whom many now consider cliched). Looks like we got ourselves a 40+ year old white mainstream gay music connoisseur.

O Zionist office of Hasbara Trolls! don’t you have any people with better taste?

Historically, Israel was created by destroying Palestine. Hamas, Hezbollah and the PA are creations of Israeli occupation. And why middle east politics? Why not judge Israel by standards of human rights?

Rose, I apologize for offending you. I really did not mean to insult you in any way. I was trying to inject (apparently unsuccessfully) some humor into the conversation. Thank-you for placing me the age group of 40+ (I am nearly 60). It makes me feel young again. I love show tunes and it shows. I also love Israel and value the close relationship between Americans and Israelis. I hope we can talk again.

Apology accepted (but I have to point out that your humor was more like sarcasm). Anyway, I, in turn, apologise for implying that you have poor taste.

That said, you really need to go and read the news and the piles of human rights reports on what is happening inside Israel. The Israeli army and government are systematically killing unarmed Palestinian civilians and stealing their lands. They are also systematically discriminating against their own non-Jewish minority and their foreign workers. How can you love a country that is ethno-supremacist? Isn’t that what Germany and Italy were like in the last century? How can you love a country that uses the gays in their ads to whitewash their own crimes and make it seem like it’s a haven of tolerance when it has the biggest open air prison in the world and some of the most bigoted government sanctioned housing policies?

As for the special relationship between Israel and the US, that special relationship has helped get the US in Iraq and that special relationship is now pushing for the US to get involved with Iran and that same special relationship has made the US very unpopular in the world so I don’t understand why you would value a relationship that is destroying your own country and that is sucking away billions of tax dollars that could instead be used for much needed domestic development.

I left the following comment on this topic at the Desert Peace website, and, with slight revisions, I post it again here:

As a man who happens to be gay and living in New York City, allow me to point out that Michael Lucas does not, has never, and will not ever speak for me, nor anyone I respect. In my opinion he represents the basest and most repellant manifestation of same-sex desire. His films are revolting displays of the very worst aspects of gay “culture,” emphasizing vapidity, materialism, and a body-fascist chic that gay men I know find abjectly anti-erotic and embarrassing. In fact, with his trademark silicon pout and otherwise plucked and plasticine features, Lucas is nothing more to any man than a walking joke, and a bad one at that. Now he proves himself representative of the most cowardly, bullying and reactionary aspect of the homosexual “community,” and a perfect illustration of the tendency among some people in any oppressed minority to seek out another group to vent their own internalized hatred and rage against. In short, he is the sort of person Truman Capote had in mind when, with an admirable disregard for political correctness, he spoke about the kind of faggot who has antifreeze instead of blood in his veins.

There are many gay men and women who view it as our duty to stand by other oppressed minorities in their struggles for dignity and survival. Unfortunately, since our type generally chooses not to pander to the lowest common denominator when it comes to making a living, we do not have the money to buy the influence Gotham’s own Queen of Smut does. It is tragic that so many gay people never recover from the wounds that growing up gay all too commonly inflicts upon their psyches, remaining inured in a pornographic spectacle they mistake for pride in themselves, and in a hedonistic subculture where sex is mistaken for love and where sensual pleasure, however achieved, represents a purposeful existence. It is this exploitative, vulgar and antihuman milieu that is the source of the malign influence which Michael Lucas’ currently wields against a defenseless people. And that is all the more the pity.

The New York City LGBT Center has historically been a place where underdogs of all sorts, gay as well as straight, have been able to gather in an atmosphere of peace, tolerance and respect. It has been an historic locus of resistance to corrupt and bigoted power. It is disgraceful, if predictable, that such power can emanate from within the ranks of gays. But while the pertly preening, ever-poutier and more-airbrushed Wicked Witch of Chelsea may wield a financial power which our Community Center does not feel equipped to withstand, his obscenities, whether political or cinematic, will never represent the spirit of freedom, tolerance and respect that sparked the Stonewall uprising, and that lives in all people of goodwill…the very same spirit that is under attack in Palestine.

As a gay MAN, I demand an end to apartheid in Israel, and to the Israeli massacre of the Palestinian people. And I condemn the depraved and shameful joke that Michael Lucas is.

I will add here that speaking out against the Israeli slaughter of the Palestinians, and the rise of neo-fascist/totalitarian attitudes among Israeli youth in particular, is only “problematic” to those too timid to take a meaningful moral stand on what is among the most egregious violations of human rights on the face of the planet currently.

It is sickening that Michael Lucas hides behind homosexuality in expressing his material support of the genocide being enacted against the Palestinian people, whose very identity is denied by major voices in the Israeli power-structure. Just as sickening are those who hide behind the great faith of Judaism in projecting a murderous hatred against their fellow Semites. Among all the hemming and hawing in a number of these comments about what any of this has to do with gays, etc., where is there any acknowledgment of the facts on the ground in Palestine? My fellow New Yorker gd/Grace expresses things succinctly on this count. And Jim? Do you really think that by supporting the slaughter of Palestinians you are doing the gay cause a favor? Gosh and golly gee-wilikers, I wonder why those mean ol’ A-rabs might hate someone who, between fornicating in the ruins of their ancestor’s homes, takes part in urging their extermination?!) Please, some free advice from a gay New Yorker, BUTT OUT, DON’T DO ME ANY FAVORS, and go to work in your own back yard to align homosexuality with the extinction of a nationality.

This is not said to “attack” Israel, but to beg it, for the sake of the world, common decency and itself, to come to its senses at long last and stop inflicting on others what was inflicted on Jews (among others) only decades ago.

I support a Palestinian state on the West Bank. I support a settlement freeze. I support a change in Israeli government which would more positively work toward a two-state solution. I support the Obama Administration in its efforts to facilitate peace negotiation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. I support Israel’s right to exist. I support Israel’s right to defend its citizens against attacks from organizations widely viewed as terrorist organizations (i.e. Hamas and Hezbollah).

I don’t support Helen Thomas’ comments on Jews having no right to live in Israel. I don’t support Iran’s criminal regime and their repeated calls for the destruction of Israel. I don’t support the organized efforts in this country, Canada and Europe to boycott, divest and apply sanctions against Israel and Israeli companies. I don’t agree with Max Blumenthal’s highly-selective, unrepresentative and prejudicial presentation of Israeli attitudes towards Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular.

Now you know more of what I think about Israel and the Palestinians. One last plea to Max. Please, Max, we need you back here in America fighting for working people against the concentrated power of the monied interests on the right. Matt Taibbi and Charles Ferguson shouldn’t do all the heavy lifting on the story of Wall Street corruption. Who gives a crap about a gay pornographer, anyway? People in Wisconsin are fighting for their lives. Fox News lies about unions and working people every day. We need you back home fighting for us here in America, Max. Please, Max.

“I support Israel’s right to defend its citizens against attacks from organizations widely viewed as terrorist organizations (i.e. Hamas and Hezbollah).”

Jim, you’ve succinctly laid out the liberal Zionist package: Managed apartheid with a negotiated settlement by select ‘moderates’. Palestine is one country. The colonial-settlers have no right to exclude non-Jews from any part of it, especially the Palestinian refugees. Israel would not have to defend anyone if it didn’t insist on enforcing segregation at gunpoint. Hamas and Hezbollah are creations of Israeli attacks on civilians, so if you don’t like their politics, make them irrelevant. Terminate their raison d’etre. Otherwise they are the ones defending their people from Israeli aggression (Within their ability).

You should engage the fact that Israel’s whole existence hinges on violence against civilians.

To andrew r–I’m not a big Star Trek fan, and maybe you’re too young to have watched, but there was one episode where two factions on this planet who were exact opposites, their painted faces mirror images of one another, constantly battling over everything. That’s what you and the extreme right sound like to me. Only one side has a right to exist and the other needs to be exterminated or expelled. If believing Israel has a right to exist and to defend its citizens when attacked is being a Zionist, then I’m a Zionist. I’m not sure what label applies to your extreme positions on Israel, but it must be clear to you that they are outside the mainstream of American politics and American policies for the last 60 years.

“That’s what you and the extreme right sound like to me. Only one side has a right to exist and the other needs to be exterminated or expelled.”

Uhhh, Jim, Israel didn’t come gift-wrapped for you. It was taken from someone by force. The Palestinian refugees had to be expelled so you could have your Jewish state. Now in your mind someone who thinks the refugees and their later generations have the right to re-enter the country and live there again is the one who wants expulsion. That’s ass backwards.

As for being outside mainstream American politics, that would be Israel. That’s what I’d be saying if I thought mainstream American politics meant anything as a category or had any merit worth defending. The USA at least abolished legally enforced segregation, and most people would be appalled if they were subjected to pretty much everything reported on this blog. Certainly you’d be inflamed if a Jew had to spend ten years in court just to move into a city, c.f. Adel Kaadan.

“If believing Israel has a right to exist and to defend its citizens when attacked is being a Zionist, then I’m a Zionist.”

Being a Zionist means you think Jews can never live in stability with gentiles and must have their own state to protect themselves. That includes but is not limited to persecution; Many Yishuv figures rejected assimilation in principle and assumed antisemitism rose and fell on the Jews’ own merit. Israel is not interested in protecting its own citizens, by the way, else it wouldn’t put all the affordable housing for less well-off families in the West Bank or repeatedly break ceasefires like 4 Nov. 2008 (Ironically, Cast Lead caused an increase in Israeli civilians deaths). What you have to understand is that being a fanatical, militant ideology, Jewish deaths are expedient to conquering the land of Israel. And while it sounds silly today to talk about risk for Israeli Jews, their society has been designed from the beginning to delegate the risk to the lower caste of the Jewish population. That’s why Moroccan Jews fill Sderot.

Andrew, you sound like a guy I’d like to have a beer with. Maybe not everyday, but at least once. And if I was lucky enough to share a beer or two with you, I would like us to talk about Israelis and Palestinians. Not history, not philosophy, not who’s right and who’s wrong, but how we get to a realistic, just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. A solution on which you and I could agree and we wouldn’t have to worry about what anybody else thought. I know it wouldn’t be easy. But I’d give it a couple of hours for us to put our heads together and come up with something worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. (I understand the Swedes give those things out even if you don’t achieve peace, so what do we have to lose?) I’d like to really know what steps are needed to solve this mess because I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and I’m stumped. Logistics could be a problem. I’m way out here in the sticks and you’re someplace else; God only knows where you live. So you could share your ideas here on Max’s site. This could be fun for both of us.

Jim, you read this blog, right? You’ve seen the reports on here about the house demolitions in al-Arakib, Lod and Dahmash? The JNF planting forests over depopulated Palestinian villages and the plans to do more in the Negev? Max is on the ground reporting these acts of segregation that don’t make it into US corporate media. It’s bound to draw people who’ve done their homework.

So if you don’t like posts that take a critical look at Israeli claims, what are you doing here? Unfortunately, a realistic solution to the conflict will have to account for who’s right and who’s wrong. Someone has to be held responsible for their actions, not only what they initiate themselves, also what they continue from their predecessors. And if you want to understand where this conflict came from, it helps to research what the Zionist founders were thinking.

Thanks for the invite, but no, the last thing we need is two Jews (Assuming you’re Jewish) “negotiating” The Nobel Prize can kiss my big toe, that much we can agree on.

I live… somewhere in the Midwest.

P.S. Almost forgot, BDS is one way of holding those political actors accountable and many Palestinian groups are asking for BDS so it seems like the thing to do.

I’m not Jewish, just a big gay goy from Iowa. (I’m super! Thanks for asking.) I’ve been reading Max’s blog for awhile now but never posted until Max made a connection between his anti-Israel positions and the LGBT community. I like to get information from a lot of sources (e.g. this blog, a pro-Israel blog called IsraellyCool, Haaretz, Huffington Post, Arutz Sheva and many others that primarily or sometimes cover Israel.) I’m nearly 60 and, though I’m not comlpletely set in my ways, at this point I’m as likely to turn on Israel as Jackie Mason is. So I’ll continue reading Max’s blog (he really is a talented writer and film maker) and I’ll continue cursing at my computer screen when he unfairly attacks Israel. But my urge to post here has passed so you can do battle with others who do post with an opposing point of view. I enjoyed talking with you Andrew.

“never posted until Max made a connection between his anti-Israel positions and the LGBT community”

Max is not anti Israel, just because he is critical doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. Psychophancy is not the proof of love. The sorry state of the American media is one of the reasons there are so few like Max who does’t hesitate to dish it out when needed.

Those with a finger in the pie have more to lose than those who are outsiders looking in.